Vietnamese badminton star Nguyen Tien Minh missed out on a berth in the final of the 2016 New Zealand Grand Prix Gold after suffering a bitter 0-2 loss to Riichi Takeshita of Japan in their semifinal clash on March 26.

At 100 places above Takeshita in the BWF world rankings, world no. 43 Tien Minh had been expected to play on the upper hand against world no.143 from the land of the rising sun.

However, the Japanese shuttler proved that his quarterfinal victory over no.3 seed Lee Dong-keun of the Republic of Korea was not merely due to luck.

Takeshita impressively won the first set 21-15 before putting the match to rest with a 21-17 triumph in the second set, which also meant his securing a berth in the final scheduled on Sunday.

In the remaining semifinal match, no.13 seed Huang Yuxiang of China overcame no.16 seed Teck Zhi Soo of Malaysia in two straight sets (21-18, 21-16), making this year’s final an encounter between two players seeded outside the top ten.

The 2016 New Zealand Open Grand Prix Gold is the sixth Grand Prix badminton tournament of the 2016 BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold system, offering US$120,000 in total prize money.